Bruce Prichard on The Public Enemy in WWE: “when that bell rang, there wasn’t a lot there”

This week on “Something To Wrestle With” on AdFreeShows.com, Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson covered the 1995 WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view.

This show featured Bret Hart vs. Diesel for the WWF Championship and the beginning of Diesel’s heel turn, The Darkside vs. The Royals, The BodyDonnas vs. The Underdogs, and a “Wildcard” elimination match that saw heels and faces teaming together.

This was the first Survivor Series to not air on Thanksgiving Eve or Thanksgiving day. Bruce Prichard was asked if this hurt the PPV buy rate that year.

Bruce said, “Initially I think that people are creatures of habit and those that were into the Survivor Series were probably thinking they were going to have their time with the family on Thanksgiving night and watch Survivor Series. But at the same time, the short answer to the question is yes, I do think it hurt because Sunday night after Thanksgiving, people are traveling to go home. That’s one of the reasons why we looked at doing it the Sunday before and being as close to the weekend as we can without being that weekend when there are so many things happening from Thanksgiving to Black Friday and then travel. It was trial and error for us and trying something different and trying something new.”

Prichard on Public Enemy getting a tryout at this show: “It was with Paul’s (Heyman) blessing. Paul is the one who hooked it up for us and then unfortunately that damn bell had to ring. I loved the act. I loved the entrance and the crowd participation. I did like Rocco an awful lot personally. Ted Petty I thought was a hell of a worker and a pretty nice guy. He was good to me. Johnny was Johnny but I didn’t dislike Johnny. I could take him or leave him. The act was hot but once you realize that oh, oh, when that bell rang, there wasn’t a lot there. In ECW they could use the chairs and tables and all that bulls**t and it didn’t translate.”

Public Enemy got another shot with WWE in early 1999 but they were never accepted by some of the key people backstage because of the animosity over the fact that they chose WCW over the WWF in late 1995. The Public Enemy’s run in 1999 only lasted a couple of months.

If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit “Something To Wrestle With on AdFreeShows.com” with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.